The Dance
by suburbs
Summary: Frankie tried to correct a mistake with the help of his brothers. Future Fic. Companion to Operation Matchmaker. JONAS


_Disclaimer: I do not own JONAS._

_A/N: This is the result of a major case of writer's block (which is ironic as it is the longest one shot I've ever written). Normally I would have posted it in five chapters, but I am trying something different so it is a one shot with five point-of-view shifts. I hesitated to post it since it was so heavy on the OC, but hopefully you'll forgive that. I needed to write it to get it out of my head._

_Dedication: For Jenn and Kelly, who convinced me it would be okay to post this._

For the first time that he could remember, Frankie Lucas was not looking forward to spending time with his brothers and sister-in-law. Normally he loved having them home, but for the past 36 hours he had been doing his best to avoid them. Eventually they would corner him, but he was hoping to put it off for as long as possible. His latest attempt to evade them involved sitting on the couch and staring intently at a rerun of CSI like it was the most interesting, enthralling thing he had ever seen.

He sensed that he wasn't alone, but he hoped that by remaining still and looking straight ahead whoever was behind him would just go away. As he felt someone leap over the back of the couch and land next to him, he knew he was out of luck. He should have gone with calculus homework – no one bothers someone doing calculus homework.

"Hi Frankie," Kevin said, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "Whatca doing?"

"Watching TV," he answered without looking at his brother. All of a sudden the screen in front of him went black.

"Not anymore," Nick said as he settled next to his younger brother on the couch.

"I was watching that," Frankie whined.

"You can watch it online later. Don't you want to spend time with your brothers?" Joe asked as he dropped into a nearby chair, pretending to sound hurt.

"Not really," Frankie muttered.

"Stop being a sullen teenager – we haven't seen you in months."

Frankie felt a little guilty because what Nick had said was true. His brothers had been off recording in LA, and he hadn't seen them since his junior year at Horace Mantis had started three months ago. And it wasn't their fault that he had a guilty conscious.

"So how's the album coming?" He asked, hoping to draw the attention away from himself.

"Great!" Kevin replied with a happy grin. "And I got to play on an album for this new singer Nick discovered. She's awesome!"

"Really?" Frankie said, smirking at his brother. Nick never could resist an attractive musician. "How awesome is she Nick?"

"She's totally awesome. She's pretty, and she can sing and dance and play piano," Kevin gushed.

"And she's sixteen," Nick added. "So it's not what you think Frankie. I happened to be in the studio while she was recording her demo and offered to help."

Kevin looked at his brothers in confusion, "How did you know what Frankie was thinking?"

Nick just ignored his oldest brother. "So Mom tells us there's some dance at school Friday and that you have a big date."

Frankie groaned. "It's no big deal. I'm going with this girl named Jessica."

"And will we be meeting this lucky young lady?"

"Probably. She's coming over here before the dance."

Nick looked disappointed, "Why aren't you picking her up at her house?"

Frankie rolled his eyes, "I offered. She wanted to come over here."

Sometimes Nick drove him crazy. They had the same parents – Frankie had received the same lessons on how to treat a girl, but Nick always had to act so superior. At least Frankie had gone on a date in the past year unlike a certain brother he could mention.

"Oh, who's Ellie going with?" Kevin asked suddenly. "Is he nice? You should tell him if he doesn't treat her well her three big brothers are going to beat him up!"

"She doesn't have any brothers," Frankie said as if stating the obvious.

Kevin looked hurt, "Her mom said I'm like the son she never had, which makes me like the brother Ellie never had, and since Joe and Nick are my brothers, that makes them like her brothers."

Frankie blinked, "That made no sense."

"It did," Kevin insisted. "As long as you don't think about it too much."

"That pretty much goes for most of what he says," Nick observed philosophically.

"So who's she going with?" Kevin asked again.

"I don't know," Frankie mumbled. He knew that the moment he had been dreading had arrived.

"You don't know?" Nick said with an edge to his voice. "Isn't she your best friend?"

Frankie winced a little at the implications of that question. He knew his brothers loved Ellie and that they would be disappointed in the truth – that the two of them hadn't spoken in months. That he went out of his way to avoid talking to her now. Instead of answering the question directly, he said, "We're both just really busy, so we don't get to hang out that much anymore."

"You look really busy," Nick replied dryly. Frankie realized he probably should have used a different excuse since he had pretty much been sitting on the couch watching television since his brothers had arrived home. And he also realized that his brothers were not going to let this go without a better explanation.

"Fine," Frankie said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Ellie and I aren't really friends anymore. Happy now?"

Kevin looked upset and confused as he answered Frankie's question, "Why would we be happy about that? We love Ellie."

Gritting his teeth, Frankie replied, "I know you do. But not everyone is like Joe and Stella. Sometimes people don't stay friends. It sucks, but it happens. And it happened to me and Ellie."

Instead of waiting for all of them to react, he got up off the couch and stomped to his bedroom. As he left the room, he heard Kevin ask, "Does this mean we can't be friends with her? Cause I was looking forward to taking her to ice cream like old times."

He heard Nick respond, "Just cause Frankie's an idiot doesn't mean we can't…"

He slammed the door before he could hear the rest.

Frankie collapsed back onto his bed, hoping that for once his brothers would just leave him alone. He seriously did not want to rehash the past few months – especially because he knew that it was mostly his fault. It had just gotten so hard to have a girl for a best friend. High school wasn't really set up to handle that. He had gotten tired of explaining that they weren't dating or having the girls he liked get jealous of the time he spent with Ellie. And it didn't help that none of that seemed to bother her; she had never cared what other people thought. Once upon a time, that had been one of his favorite things about her, but eventually he had begun to resent her for it. Why did she have to be so different from everyone else? How come she never cared about the same things other people did?

And so he had pushed her away. He made new friends and dated lots of pretty girls and started to avoid her. He had tried to forget the look of hurt and betrayal he had seen on her face the first time he walked past her and ignored her greeting. And he had tried to ignore the fact that he really missed her because he didn't think that she was ever going to forgive him for ditching her like that.

She had been his best friend for eight years, and he had just walked away from her. Not even Joe had ever done something that stupid.

"Is anyone going to go talk to him?" Joe asked a few minutes after Frankie had stormed out of the family room.

Nick and Kevin looked at each other before shaking their heads. "He didn't look like he wanted to talk," Nick finally answered.

"I'm going to call Ellie," Kevin said. He was having a hard time accepting the idea that Ellie and Frankie weren't friends anymore. It just seemed wrong. Like the universe was spinning out of control. All of a sudden he had a horrible thought, "What if she doesn't want to see us anymore now that she's not friends with Frankie?"

Ellie had become like family –the little sister that he had always wanted but never had. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, when Nick put a hand on his shoulder.

"How about you call her and see what happens before you get worked up?" His younger brother suggested. "I bet she'll be really excited to hear from you."

Taking a deep breath, Kevin nodded. "Thanks Nick."

"Anytime."

Kevin reached into his pocket for his phone and dialed the familiar number. He smiled when he heard Ellie pick up the phone and say, "Kevin? Is that you?" Her voice was filled with excitement.

"Hi Ellie," he said happily. "It's me. We just got back in town, and I was wondering if you were up for some ice cream."

"Really?"

"Of course. It's been way too long since we saw you," Kevin said, hoping that she could tell how serious he was. She had sounded so insecure a moment ago, which wasn't like her. "When are you free?"

"Uhm… I'm still at school getting stuff ready for the dance, but I should be finished pretty soon. How about I meet you at the ice cream parlor in an hour?"

"Sounds good. I'll see you then!"

When they arrived at the ice cream parlor, they found Ellie waiting for them in their old booth – the one closest to the emergency exit. As soon as she saw the three brothers, she bolted out of her seat and flew towards them. She giggled as Kevin picked her up and swung her around in a giant hug.

"Hi Ellie Bear!" He said happily.

"I missed you!" She said as soon as he put her down.

"We missed you too," Nick replied before giving her a slightly less dramatic hug.

After Joe had taken his turn greeting the teenager, the four of them slid into the booth. The first thing Ellie said was, "You've probably noticed that things are…" she hesitated, "different between me and Frankie." Kevin opened his mouth to reply, but she cut him off, "But do you think we could not talk about that?"

He snapped his mouth closed. He had really been hoping that she would explain to him what had happened, but one look at how sad she seemed and he knew that none of them was going to try and force her to talk about whatever had gone wrong between her and his little brother.

"Sure, Ellie," Nick answered for all three of them.

"How's Stella?" Ellie asked Joe.

He grinned at the mention of his wife, "She's doing great. She's been working on her own clothing line."

"Wow!" Ellie exclaimed. "I can't wait to see her designs." Then she added, "And hear your new album. How is it going?"

"Good," Kevin said, trying to keep the conversation normal even though all he could think about was Ellie and Frankie. "Nick really out did himself with the songs this time."

"Is your mom going to let you buy this one?" Joe asked jokingly.

Ellie laughed. "She has the release date marked in huge red letters on the family calendar. I wouldn't be surprised if she's waiting outside Walmart at midnight – she loves you guys."

"What's not to love?" Joe observed.

"Very true," Ellie said trying to keep a straight face. "You're very lovable. And modest, too."

Kevin chuckled – she had always loved making fun of Joe. It was almost like old times – if only Frankie had come with them. Thinking of his younger brother reminded Kevin of something Ellie had mentioned on the phone.

"So how's the dance coming along?" he asked.

"Uhm, good I guess," Ellie said distractedly as Joe blew his straw wrapper at her. "I'm not sure why I volunteered to help since dances aren't really my thing, but we're almost ready. I think I've put silver glitter on about a million fake snowflakes."

"That explains why your hair looks so sparkly," Kevin observed, reaching out to pull a few pieces of glitter out of her curls. At that moment the waitress arrived to take their orders. After she was done, Kevin went back to questioning Ellie about the dance. "So who's the lucky guy taking our little Ellie to the dance?"

"There isn't one," she said simply before flicking a small paper ball across the table at Joe.

"What?"

"I'm not going."

"Why not?" Nick asked. "Don't you want to see all those snowflakes glittering away?"

Shrugging, Ellie explained, "No one asked me, and I don't feel like going by myself."

At that moment, Kevin wished that there was a group of high school boys around for him to glare at. How on earth did a girl as cool as Ellie not have a date? She had worked hard on the dance, and she deserved to go.

Apparently he wasn't the only one to feel that way because Joe suddenly asked, "Do you want us to find you a date? You name the teen celebrity, and we'll get him here."

Nick gave Joe an incredulous look, but before he could comment, Ellie said, "That's sweet of you. Weird, but sweet." Smiling at the brothers, she added, "I think I'll pass, though. I don't want to go with some stranger."

Without thinking, Kevin blurted out, "I'll take you then."

"What?" she said, obviously caught off guard by the offer.

"Why not?" He asked, warming up to the idea. "It'll be fun to go back and see our old school. Plus, you know me, and we always have fun together."

"Hey," Nick said, jumping in. "What about me? I wanna to go."

"I thought of it," Kevin argued. "So I should get to take her."

"Why don't you both go?" Joe suggested. "I'd go too," he told Ellie, "but I'm pretty sure they don't let married guys take sixteen year olds to dances."

"I'm not sure that they let twenty-something rock stars go to high school dances either," Ellie observed dryly.

"Come on, Ellie," Kevin cajoled. "It'll be fun. Just ask the principal if we can come."

"But it's two days away, and I don't even have a dress or anything," she pointed out.

"You're kidding, right?" Joe scoffed.

"Huh?" She replied in confusion.

"What Joe means is, you find out if the school will let Kevin and me take you and don't worry about the dress," Nick translated.

"I haven't been to a lot of dances, but I'm pretty sure the dress is important."

Kevin always enjoyed the rare times when he wasn't the one confused by the conversation going on around him. Normally he liked to relish the moment, but the dance was in less than 48 hours and they didn't have time for that, so he put his arm around the girl sitting next to him and simply said, "Stella."

Joe knew his wife well enough to know that it was driving her crazy that Ellie was going to have to go to the dance in a store-bought dress and not a Stella Lucas original, but there just hadn't been time for her to design and make a dress. Instead, Stella had gone shopping and brought home five dresses for the teenager to try on. And made her promise that Stella could design her a prom dress.

He watched his wife studying Ellie in the last of the dresses. He was pretty sure which one she was going to pick, but sometimes she surprised him.

"Try that purple one on again," Stella announced.

"But it's too big," Ellie said as she headed back into the guys' bathroom to change.

"Don't worry about that," Stella insisted. "I have plenty of time to alter it. But I think that that was the best color and cut on you."

"I agree," Joe piped in, although he knew his opinion really didn't matter much. When it came to fashion, Stella made up her own mind.

Ellie returned to the bedroom in a deep purple, knee-length dress. The girl glanced down at the dress and then back up at his wife, "Are you sure?"

Stella hopped up off of the floor and put an arm around Ellie's shoulders, "Trust me. This is the one. Just stand over there and let me pin it."

"No one's better than Stella," Joe added. "When she's done, it will look like it was made for you."

"That's so sweet," Stella cooed, leaning in to give her husband a quick kiss. "And true," she added matter-of-factly. "When I'm done with you, all the other girls at the dance will be green with envy. And you need silver heels."

"I don't have silver heels," Ellie replied, sounding worried. "I don't actually have any heels. But I have eight pair of converse."

"I love converse, I really do," Stella said, obviously trying to sound supportive, "but you can't wear them to the dance."

"But I have school tomorrow and I have to help decorate for the dance. I don't have time to go shoe shopping," Ellie insisted.

Stella looked to Joe for support, and he smiled at his wife before saying, "Neiman Marcus same day courier."

And he was rewarded with a grin, "Perfect."

"I can't afford Neiman Marcus," Ellie said sounding panicked.

"But your dates can," Stella pointed out.

"Nick and Kevin are not buying me shoes!"

"Consider it a Christmas present," Joe suggested.

"A Christmas present is a nice book," Ellie replied, "not two hundred dollar shoes."

"Six hundred dollars," Stella corrected, pinning Ellie's right sleeve.

"What?" the girl said, sounding like she was choking.

"A good pair of shoes from Neiman Marcus is closer to six hundred dollars."

"Forget it! I'll get my mom to write me a note and go shopping during lunch," Ellie insisted, adding under her breath, "Who spends six hundred dollars for a pair of shoes?"

"I do," Stella replied. Joe was actually fairly certain that the Christian Louboutin pumps his wife was currently wearing were actually closer to eight hundred, but decided that he didn't need to mention that.

"Mine were only four hundred," Joe said holding out his foot so she could see his black leather boots. The entire conversation seemed to have rendered the sixteen year old speechless. Grabbing her pin cushion, his wife motioned for Ellie to hold out her arms and stand still. The room was quiet as Stella worked.

Ellie finally broke the silence. "Hey, Stella? Do you ever talk to Macy anymore?"

He saw his wife look up in surprise. "Sure. I talked to her this morning; we're going to coffee tomorrow."

"So you know she teaches PE at Horace Mantis now." When Stella nodded, Ellie continued talking. "Well, she's going to be one of the chaperones tomorrow night. Do you think I should warn Kevin?"

Joe could tell by his wife's expression that she hadn't considered that Kevin and Macy might run into each other at the dance. She had always hoped that her best friend and brother-in-law would get back together again, but it had never worked out. He knew she had been crushed when Macy had shown up at their wedding with a date.

"I think they'll be fine," he heard his wife say.

"What ever happened with them? Why did they break up?" Ellie asked.

"Kevin graduated," Stella said. "And the guys were traveling a lot. I guess they both just decided it was too hard to do the long distance thing."

"Maybe it'll be good for him to see her again," Joe added. "I don't think he's ever gotten over her."

"They were really cute together," Ellie agreed. She gave a small smile before adding, "Did I ever tell you Frankie and I almost tried to set her up with Nick?"

"Nick and Macy?" Joe said laughing. "What made you think of that?"

"Give us a break," Ellie replied. "We were eight. Plus, she did dress one of her dates up like him."

Joe shuttered a little. He had spent the past eight years trying to block out the memory of that night – Stella getting mad at him, Kevin in that cheerleading outfit, and Randolph walking around dressed like Nick. It had been the stuff of nightmares.

"Speaking of Frankie," he said trying to change the subject. "What happened? When we left this summer everything seemed normal between you two."

He saw Ellie frown and shake her head a little. "I honestly have no idea. I know that sounds stupid, but I don't." She looked so sad and lost that for the first time ever Joe felt a very strong desire to punch his little brother. "One day everything was fine and the next he's not talking to me. I've tried to figure out what I did, but I don't remember anything unusual."

As the young girl's eyes started to well up with tears, his wife glared at him, which he felt was unfair as he hadn't actually done anything wrong. Standing up, Stella gave Ellie a hug. "You didn't do anything," she insisted. "Boys are just dumb."

Normally, Joe would have jumped in to defend his gender, but in this case, he had to agree with Stella.

"I'm all done now," his wife added. "Go ahead and take this off. I'll get started on the alterations."

Ellie gave her a small, watery smile before heading towards the bathroom.

Wanting to make her feel better, Joe called after her, "You're going to look beautiful, Ellie. The guys at Horace Mantis won't know what hit them!"

Nick had been sitting downstairs for almost twenty minutes waiting for Kevin and Ellie when the door bell rang. He glanced back at his youngest brother's room, but when there wasn't any movement, he figured he had better answer the door. He might be annoyed with Frankie, but he wasn't going to let some poor high school girl stand outside in the cold.

He opened the door to find a tall brunette in a short, tight dress standing in front of him. His first thought was that he really hoped that she was a lost prostitute in need of directions and not his brother's date.

"Hi, I'm Jessica," she practically purred as she held out her hand. "Frankie's date."

Instead of shaking her hand, he stepped out of the way and ushered her inside. He was seriously going to have to talk to Frankie about his taste in girls. This one appeared to think that more was better in the make-up department. And the bottom half of her dress was clearly missing. "I'm Nick, and he isn't quite ready yet. Come on in."

Frankie had mentioned that his date had wanted to meet up at the firehouse instead of having him pick her up, and from the way she was acting, Nick was pretty sure it was because she had wanted to meet the famous brothers.

They stood there awkwardly for a few minutes while she openly stared at him before she finally said, "So you look nice."

"Thanks," he replied. He saw her face harden a little when he didn't return the compliment. "I have a date tonight too."

"Really?" She said, sounding disappointed. "Cause I've read all about you, and no one ever mentioned a girlfriend."

Apparently Frankie liked them trashy and creepy, Nick thought.

Fortunately at that moment he looked up and saw Ellie coming down the stairs. Stella had done a fabulous job as usual. The knee-length dress was flattering without being over-the-top, and Stella had done something so that Ellie's normally curly hair hung in soft waves framing her face. He smiled at her and said, "You look fantastic, Ellie."

Jessica's head snapped around and her eyes narrowed as she saw her classmate descending the stairs towards the grinning rock star. "Ellie, what are you doing here? I heard you didn't have a date for the dance."

Nick watched the smile fade from Ellie's face as she began to stammer, "I don't really have a da-"

"She doesn't have one date," Nick said, cutting Ellie off. He walked over and threw an arm around her shoulder as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "She has two dates."

"Wait," Jessica said in disbelief, "she's your date?" Without giving Nick time to answer, she turned to Ellie and asked, "Is this some sort of joke?"

"No joke," Kevin said, coming up behind them with a corsage, which he quickly slipped on Ellie's wrist. "She's going to the dance with both of us."

Nick saw the girl glare dangerously at the sight of Ellie flanked by the two famous men. "Since we're all here, let's head to the dance," he said quickly before the spawn of Satan posing as his younger brother's date could say anything else to upset Ellie.

"But we didn't get pictures," Kevin whined. "I want pictures."

Ellie reached out and patted his oldest brother on the arm. "Don't worry, Kev. They have a photographer at the dance."

"Or we can get one of the paparazzi outside to snap a few shots for us," Nick suggested. "It's about time they were good for something."

Frankie was having a miserable time at the dance. In addition to looking trashy, his date was boring; he was trying very hard to remember why he had wanted to go with her in the first place. To make matters worse, it looked like Ellie and his brothers were having a great time. Apparently Nick knew how to waltz because he was currently spinning Ellie around the dance floor. She was giggling and doing her best to follow, earning her glares from all the other girls in the room.

"Are you going to sit here all night or are we going to dance?" His date asked, obviously annoyed.

"Sorry," he mumbled in response. "Did you want to dance?"

"Yes," she said angrily.

Frankie got up from the table and took his date's hand. When they reached the dance floor, she attached herself to him, pressing her body up against him obviously trying to be seductive. He gently put his hands on her waist and moved her slightly away from him as he began to sway to the music. He could hear her huff a little, obviously unhappy that he had changed their position.

"If you don't want to dance with me, Frankie, just say so," she hissed. "There are plenty of guys here who would be happy to take your place."

His parents had taught him to be a gentleman and a gentleman would never ditch a girl on a date, but she had just offered him a way out and there was no way he was going to pass up that opportunity. Biting back the sarcastic response he really wanted to make, he said sweetly, "Sorry I'm not very fun tonight. If you want to go find someone else to dance with, go ahead."

Jessica narrowed her eyes at him, obviously surprised that he had called her bluff. He figured that she had expected him to grovel and beg her for forgiveness, but there was only one girl who he could imagine groveling for, and it certainly wasn't her.

"Fine," she shot back. "I will."

She turned and stomped off, leaving him alone on the dance floor. Sighing, he walked back to the table he had been occupying only moments before. As the song changed, he saw Kevin take over for Nick, who bowed to Ellie before heading over towards his table.

"Having fun?" Nick asked with a smirk.

Frankie didn't feel like dealing with his brother right then, so he just ignored him and watched as Kevin spun and dipped his friend. It should have been disturbing watching her slow dance with someone ten years older, but the two were obviously goofing off so instead it was like watching a brother and sister who enjoyed each other's company. And he couldn't help but think that it should have been him out there having fun with Ellie.

As he sat sulking, Macy hesitantly walked up to Ellie and tapped her on the shoulder. He couldn't hear what she said, but he figured she must have asked to cut in because Ellie grinned, let go of his brother and headed towards the refreshment table. He watched as Kevin smiled shyly at his ex-girlfriend, pulled her close and began to dance with her in an entirely different way than he had been dancing with Ellie only moments before.

"This is your chance," Nick said, startling Frankie. "Ellie's all alone. Why don't you go ask her to dance?"

"I don't want to dance with Ellie," Frankie retorted.

"Sure you don't," his brother mocked. When Frankie didn't answer, he continued, "If you don't want to dance with her, how about apologizing instead?" He felt a hand on his shoulder, "You obviously miss her – don't let something as stupid as your pride ruin your friendship."

"What if it's too late? What if it's already ruined?" Frankie asked anxiously.

"That's possible," Nick admitted, never one to sugarcoat the truth. "But if you don't try, it will definitely be ruined, right?"

Sighing, Frankie glanced over to where Ellie was pouring herself a glass of punch. He knew his brother was right – the only way he was ever going to fix this mess was if he apologized. And if he was honest with himself, he knew we wanted to fix it. He missed his best friend. It turned out that being away from her was way worse than dealing with all the stupid people who didn't understand their relationship.

He just hoped that she felt the same way.

"You can do it," Nick said to him.

Nodding he stood up and walked towards his ex-best friend. As he neared her he cleared his throat and said, "Hi Ellie."

She looked up at him in shock, "Hi," she replied flatly.

He had known it wasn't going to be easy, but hearing her use that tone of voice with him hurt, even though he knew he deserved it. He knew he should apologize or grovel, but standing in the middle of a dance seemed like the wrong time for that. Instead, he took a deep breath and asked, "Do you want to dance?"

"You're kidding, right?" She replied in disbelief.

That hadn't been the reaction he had expected. Shaking his head, he said, "No."

"Seriously? Could you be any more cliché?"

He stared at her in confusion as she narrowed her eyes at him. Apparently in the past few months his ability to understand Ellie-speak had diminished because he had no idea what she was talking about. He was vaguely aware that everyone in their general vicinity had stopped talking and was watching their exchange. Ellie must have noticed this too because she spun around and stalked off towards a corner of the gym. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to follow her or not, but he decided that was preferable to standing alone while half the school stood watching him like he was on a late-night talk show.

He followed her out a door and into a deserted hallway and stood watching her pace and mutter to herself under her breath. Finally she turned and faced him, "It's like you think that we're in some John Hughes movie or something where the big dramatic moment has to come at some stupid school dance. Put the best friend in a dress and make up and suddenly she's interesting again. Is that it?"

"What? No! It has nothing to do with the dress," he sputtered. When he saw the look on her face, he knew that wasn't the right thing to say. Although, he was fairly certain that there was no right thing at this point; she was hurt and angry and just wanted to lash out at him, and he didn't blame her. "Not that you don't look really pretty in the dress, cause you do. But that has nothing to do with me asking you to dance."

He paused a moment to give her a chance to respond, but when she just stood in front of him with her arms crossed, he continued. "Watching you with my brothers just made me realize how much I miss you and how stupid I've been."

"You've been a total a…" He watched as she caught herself and said, "jerk."

"I know. And I'm so sorry."

"Sometimes sorry isn't enough," she said wearily.

"I know. You deserve groveling and very long apologies, and I promise you'll get them. I will happily take any punishment you dish out," he said earnestly. "But do you think maybe you could wait until tomorrow for that? And just go back inside and dance with me once?"

"Why do you even care about the dance thing?" She asked, sounding frustrated. "We never had a dance sort of relationship even when you were speaking to me."

Sighing, he said, "I don't have a really good reason. This dance has sucked, and all I've thought about all night was how much more fun I would be having if I was here with you. I guess I just want to dance with my best friend and forget about everything else for a little while."

He was sure she was going to say no. Hell, he knew he deserved to have her say no – that was a really bad reason. But she didn't. Instead she glared at him and said, "Fine. One dance."

His eyes lit up. That was his Ellie – feisty and unpredictable and still supportive of him even when he was an idiot. "Really?"

She gave him a fierce look as she said, "Yes. But this doesn't mean you're forgiven. I'm still mad and hurt and I don't trust you."

"Okay," he said holding up his hands as if he was being held at gun point. "Fair enough."

She bit her lip in what he assumed was an effort to keep from crying and turned back towards the gym. He rushed ahead of her so he could open the door for her, which earned him a small smile. She led the way to a dark edge of the dance floor and stopped. As he reached for her waist, she put her hands on his shoulders, her arms straight so that they were almost a foot apart. Rolling his eyes at her he pulled her closer to him so it was almost like he was hugging her. Her body was rigid in his arms.

They stood like that for a moment, rocking awkwardly to the music, before he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "I'm so, so sorry, El. I promise I'll never do it again."

He felt her draw in a sharp breath and then she leaned into him, burying her head in his chest. He could feel her body shaking with sobs, and he held her tightly. Eventually he heard her say quietly, "Don't make promises you can't keep Franklin."

"I'm not. You're my best friend, no matter what. Even if you don't forgive me. I've learned my lesson. I'm not going anywhere."

He wasn't sure if she believed him, but he took it as a good sign that she didn't keep arguing with him. Instead she sniffled a little and kept her head resting against him. He knew they still had a lot of things to talk through, but he felt a flicker of hope that maybe she'd forgive him eventually.

He bent down and placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. For tonight, he was just going to enjoy having her there with him.


End file.
